. Date varieties and date culture in Tunis. ives is that an offshoot must receive plenty ofmoonlight in order to become a strong palm ! 6 Illustrated in Bui. 130, Office of Experiment Stations, U. S. Dept. of Agri-culture, 1903, p. PREPARING THE LAND FOR DATE PALMS. 45 shank and blade made in one piece of wrought iron and fitted witha wooden handle. It somewhat resembles a sickle, but has a straight,heavy, saw-edged blade nearly at right angles to the shank (fig. 4).One man then grasps the offshoot and pulls down on it, while an-other, armed with a chisel or a pick, pries it loose at its
. Date varieties and date culture in Tunis. ives is that an offshoot must receive plenty ofmoonlight in order to become a strong palm ! 6 Illustrated in Bui. 130, Office of Experiment Stations, U. S. Dept. of Agri-culture, 1903, p. PREPARING THE LAND FOR DATE PALMS. 45 shank and blade made in one piece of wrought iron and fitted witha wooden handle. It somewhat resembles a sickle, but has a straight,heavy, saw-edged blade nearly at right angles to the shank (fig. 4).One man then grasps the offshoot and pulls down on it, while an-other, armed with a chisel or a pick, pries it loose at its point ofjunction with the parent tree. The remaining roots are now cutoff, and the sucker is ready to be planted. The cost of thus remov-ing a sucker is generally 6 cents. If the offshoot is to be transported a considerable distance beforeit is planted, it must be protected from drying by a wrapping of thecoarse fiber (leef) that invests the bases of the leaf stalks of the datepalm (fig. 5) or of some similar material. PREPARING THE Fig. 5.—Camel carrying date offshoots wrapped inpalm fiber (leef) for transportation. The methods used in preparing the soil, especially if it containsu alkali, are essentially the same Avhether the plantation is to bemade in new land or in anold garden that has beenneglected. First, the irri-gation and drainage ditchesare dug or are cleaned , the soil is workedthoroughly to a depth of3 to G feet with the short-handled hoe, or messah,this operation being accom-plished by digging a trenchof the required depth atone side of the garden andthen working across. All stones, masses of gypsum, etc., encountered are carefully whole garden is then flooded to wash out whatever salt has ac-cumulated near the surface of the soil. When that is accomplished,in order to facilitate irrigation the garden is divided up into lands that vary greatly in size, but rarely exceed 120 square yards (1 are).A donkey load of manure, carefully freed
Size: 1989px × 1257px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
